


Curious

by byesweetheart (ConstantComment)



Series: Follower Ficlet Fests [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Maintenance Man Ukai, Religion, Shrine Spirit Takeda, Shrine Worker Ukai, Spirits, Supernatural Elements, Ukai is gay for a shrine spirit, kami - Freeform, shrine au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 00:36:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/byesweetheart
Summary: He’d been grumbling (swearing) while grimacing at the fuckton of cobwebs and weird detritus on the upper shelves of the shed when, with a sudden, terrifying flutter of wings, a small bird flew from the rafters he was batting with a broom. He most definitely did not scream, but if he did the dove—which watched him for the entire hour he was sweating away in the shed afterward—couldn’t tattle.





	Curious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Celesoran](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celesoran/gifts).



> Sixth 1k FOLLOW FICLET FEST ficlet (FFFf) for @celesoran!!!! I hope you like this, buddy. Sorry I couldn’t work in the smut, but there’s hints of the things you mentioned you liked! Forgive me for knowing literally nothing about anything involving Shinto/Buddhist shrines and also the shrine spirit/Kami tropes; I have read maybe one in my life hahaha. (-_-;) You will see Ukai is a maintenance guy LMAO bc I’m ridiculous.
> 
> ((I did not realize that this pairing would be the first one I wrote outside of KageHina hahaha!))

The first time the spirit came to Ukai, he was clearing out rubbish in the storage shed on the grounds of the shrine. He had been grumbling about being assigned to ‘spring cleaning’ duty for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the last couple months. (When he asked his grandfather about his shifts the old grump seemed to go temporarily deaf.) 

Ukai couldn’t for the life of him remember what he’d done _now_ to warrant so many nasty chores, but he was sure he wouldn’t find out! 

Anyway, he’d been grumbling (swearing) while grimacing at the fuckton of cobwebs and weird detritus on the upper shelves of the shed when, with a sudden, terrifying flutter of wings, a small bird flew from the rafters he was batting with a broom. He most definitely did not scream, but if he did the dove—which watched him for the entire hour he was sweating away in the shed afterward—couldn’t tattle. 

The second time was the time Ukai realized it was a spirit. Well, it wasn’t exactly the second time. But it was the second time the bird had done anything other than stare at him sweeping or hauling boxes or dousing the lamps for the night. 

“You sure are a curious creature,” the dove said as Ukai busied himself with the oil lamps along the approach of the shrine. The bird had watched him all day, but now that no one was around and it was dark and _foggy_ , it decided to reveal it wasn’t an _actual bird_ and was trying to give him a _heart attack_. 

Yet again, Ukai didn’t scream. He didn’t! 

Spirit-Dove ruffled its plumage idly as Ukai clutched at his chest. “ _I’m_ a curious creature?” Ukai squeaked out. “What the fuck are you?” 

“My name is Ittetsu. Tell me, Ukai, is a shrine worker supposed to swear so often?” the bird asked.  

Ukai narrowed his eyes. “Is a bird supposed to talk?” 

“Ah. Is my form disconcerting to you?” It looked as though the bird was attempting to look innocent, if birds could look any particular way. “I promise I’m a spirit, not a bird.” 

Ukai looked at the small feathered thing. It looked like a regular dove. Who was to say Ukai wasn’t having a mental breakdown? “Disconcerting is one word for it,” Ukai muttered. He shut the door to the small lantern he’d been attending, and climbed down his ladder to begin on the next one. 

“Hm,” Spirit-Dove said, considering. As Ukai moved his ladder to the next lamp and began his climb, there was a swift wind that ruffled his hair and rustled the leaves in the trees. When Ukai turned his head, there was a guy perched on one of the stone statues where the dove had been before.  

Ukai fell off the ladder. 

Over the next week, the others workers commented in astonishment at Ukai’s efficiency in his chores, and even his grandfather said something like praise— _like_ praise—but they’d maybe think differently if he told them he was being stalked by a bird-man-spirit and it was starting to freak him out.  

The bird-man-spirit was, however, kind of attractive. Well, not as a _bird_. After the evening he nearly brained himself on the stone pathway, Ukai hadn’t seen Ittetsu as a bird at all. Which was tough because, as he said… the ~~guy~~ disguise he chose was cute. 

Big, deep brown eyes in a round face topped with tousled dark hair, a small but solid frame. He wore dark trousers and a white button down, nondescript but crisp and… touchable with a peek of collarbone above the topmost, unbuttoned buttons. And, to round it off, a pair of dorky little glasses sat on his dorky little nose. 

Ukai had a thing about glasses. They featured in a lot of his favorite pornos. He wasn’t proud of it. 

However, the most annoying thing about Ittetsu was the knowing smile that transformed his small mouth when Ukai got distracted from his work. (It was usually Ittetsu’s fault.) Although, he’d smile whether or not Ukai was supposed to be working. He apparently found Ukai incredibly amusing and “curious.” 

“Do humans think about sex as often as you?” he asked one morning.

“YOU CAN READ MY THOUGHTS?” 

“No,” Ittetsu replied with an earnest look. “Your body says it!” 

Ukai spluttered all the way to the shed ~~where they’d met~~ where he retrieved extra trash bags, as he usually did without cute spirit stalkers, but his life was a fucking joke so… whatever. 

“We should have sex. That would be interesting!” Ittetsu said as he followed after him. 

“Interesting!” Ukai scoffed. “Wait, what?!” 

“I could read you better, and you could read me—” 

“For crying out loud, you weirdo!” Ukai shouted, face so red he could feel the heat on his cheeks. “I don’t want to be _read_ , I want you to leave me alone!” 

An old woman kneeling at one of the smaller shrines nearby startled and glared at him. Ukai bowed to her and tried to look like he was doing something useful with the trash bags, but that was hard without a trashcan. He was a mess. 

When he glanced up to deliver an exasperated look to his bird-man-spirit shadow, no one was there. 

After Ukai had spent a few two many nights dreaming about Ittetsu with no sight or sound of him, after _seeing and hearing_ him every damn day at work, Ukai started to feel awful. He felt bad to begin with, because he hadn’t really meant for Ittetsu to leave for real—why couldn’t Ittetsu read _that?_ But, now he was back to his solitary maintenance job and it was lame and kind of… lonely.  

Even the hidden spot down by the creek in the ravine below the shrine, a place he usually went to eat lunch or smoke a cigarette away from all the tons of people who visited and worked at the shrine every day, felt sad. Ittetsu had never joined him there. 

Ukai sighed after another image of the spirit flitted through his mind’s eye, maybe a little more romanticized than the reality, with his collar loose and shirt nearly falling off a shoulder, looking at Ukai coyly over his glasses. “Give me strength,” Ukai grumbled as he chewed his lunch, tossing a bit of loose lettuce into the unwrapped paper on the ground beside him. 

The wind picked up a little bit, and Ukai closed his eyes. 

“Hello, Keishin,” someone murmured. 

Ukai blinked his eyes open to see Ittetsu casually perching on a nearby rock (a very nearby rock) as if he hadn’t winked into existence. Like he’d been there all day waiting. 

Ukai took a bite of his sandwich and watched Ittetsu warily. The guy was so _sneaky_. Ukai guessed when you’re invisible for millennia you get pretty good at creeping around. 

“You came back.” 

“I found you,” Ittetsu agreed. “You’ve been thinking about me,” he added after Ukai finished the last bite of his lunch. 

Ukai’s heart sped up. “Stop doing your creepy magic!” he whined. 

“I don’t do ‘magic!’ You read like a book!” Ukai tsked and folded his arms. 

“Well, if I’m so easy to read, how come you disappeared?” 

“It took me a moment to understand,” Ittetsu replied. “I wasn’t gone long, was I?” 

“Uhh, like, a week!” 

Ittetsu waved him off. “When you’ve been alive forever, time doesn’t take up much space. But, I see you’ve been thinking about what I might taste like while I was away—” 

“ _NO!_ I—was—have not!” 

The trees seemed to rustle with laughter, swaying and leaving spots of sunlight along Ittetsu’s hair and neck and shoulders as he chuckled a little. “Well, there’s no shame in it,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve been wondering the same about you. I’ve never become attached to a human like you.” Ittetsu brushed his fingers over his cheek, considering Ukai with a soft smile.  

Ukai licked his lips. 

Somehow—and Ukai wasn’t sure and would not corroborate how it happened—he ended up with Ittetsu on his lap in a very short amount of time. There may have been not-magic involved. Or maybe Ittetsu was right about time after all. But Ukai was too busy licking against a spirit’s _tongue_ to really have everything figured out. He furrowed his brow, lips sliding against the plush petal-pink lips belonging to the—to Ittetsu—and arms wrapping around his waist. 

Ittetsu made a curious noise, slowly sliding his hips until they rested snugly against Ukai’s. “Is that what food tastes like these days?” he whispered against Ukai’s mouth. 

“Uhhh,” Ukai replied, having a literal hard time because Ittetsu was even cuter up close. And his hands were very close to touching his ass. “S’what banh mi tastes like these days.” 

“Hm!” Ittetsu replied. “I shall have to kiss your every flavor, I think.” 

“Are you using your magic to seduce me?” Ukai asked after Ittetsu had spent maybe a week nipping at his lips and playing with his hair. His glasses were slightly misty as he peered down at Ukai. 

“I told you, I don’t have magic,” he said frankly, examining Ukai’s headband with a finger. “And I can’t take away your will. I bless people with tenacity! I’m a spirit of persuasion and perseverance.” 

Ukai grinned. “That explains a lot,” he said, and Ittetsu shrugged. 

“It explains that you are here, under me, very kissed, because you wanted to be,” he said. 

Ukai blushed, but pulled Ittetsu closer. “Can you tell what else I want?” he rasped. 

Ittetsu looked at Ukai for several long moments, his wide dark eyes intense. Then he blinked slowly, and leaned in for another kiss—this time, _filthy_. “I can tell,” he whispered in the close air between them, lips shiny-red, “that you’re curious about sex with a spirit.”  

How much blushing was too much blushing? 

“Oh! And you want me to top you!” 

“HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!” Ukai squawked. 

Ittetsu’s laughter filled the quiet ravine. “Was I right then?” he giggled. “You should see your face!” 

Ukai kissed him to shut him up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments & kudos are appreciated. <3
> 
> Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://byesweetheart.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/byesweetheart_)!


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